IFEANYICHUKWU AFUBA contends that the ruling party is embarking on containment measures against potential threats
With the economy wobbling, real income of Nigerians at lowest point from inflationary pressures since the civil war; loan and external debt profile at staggering levels, yet oddly enough, what takes centre stage in the polity is politics and more politics. The Punch editorial of April 7, 2025, echoed an alarm that should have injected sobriety into establishment mood. Referencing the elastic borrowing of the present dispensation, the commentary noted: “While it took eight years for Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to move Nigeria’s debt profile from N42t to N77t, Tinubu has doubled that figure in less than two years.” But because government is still about acquiring power and flaunting it, those in authority are more concerned about retaining power. And so, daily, activities are geared towards dominating the political space. There is no let up in schemes, tactics, time and moves deployed to overwhelm the opposition. Recently, the drama of defections from the ranks of opposition parties to the ruling APC has been unfolding in widening scope. At the last scene, vice presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 poll, Ifeanyi Okowa and Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, were seen waving goodbye to their PDP comrades. The theatre continues as the media rings the next cast: “2 PDP Governors, 40 lawmakers set to defect to APC.” And church entrepreneurs, with specialisation in predictable, political prophecy, tell us that even more defections are coming.
Do not weep for the PDP. Meaningful concern should be about the elevation of politicking above governance; distaste for “ideological” politics; the phobia for opposition; and the opium of ruling party membership. The PDP itself laid the foundation for this structure of soulless politics. It began with an aversion for new parties at the beginning of the Fourth Republic. For Barnabas Gemade, the party’s national chairman, the refrain was “no new parties now”. Pray, what right had the ruling party pronouncing against the quest of those seeking party registration? Yet, for three years, the PDP blocked this legitimate aspiration. It took a Supreme Court judgement in 2002 to force registration of new political parties. Still unwilling to expand the democratic space in real terms, the PDP